


Skyrim Journals - Eliane

by Sharinarra



Category: Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Genre: Diary/Journal
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-02
Updated: 2018-12-01
Packaged: 2019-09-05 08:39:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 4,562
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16807222
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sharinarra/pseuds/Sharinarra
Summary: An ongoing in character journal of my current Skyrim playthrough.I have the random alternate start mod installed, meaning I do not start at Helgen and the main plot line does not begin until I go there. This means I'm free to make up a different backstory and characterisation for my unknowing dragonborn.She's an Altmer, so there is a lot of sarcasm, superiority complex, and snobbery.For this game I am using the following DLC's and Mods;DLCs~ Dragonborn~ Dawnguard~ Hearthfire~ Texture packRelevant Mods installed~ Project AHO~ Random Alternate Start~ Character Creation Overhaul - Races - Classes - Skills~ Mage Lake House~ Become a BardCharacter: Eliane, an Altmer Warrior from the Summer Isles, recently arrived in Skyrim.





	1. Chapter One: Questing for the self

Chapter One: Questing for the self  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Had a bit of a disagreement with the family about future plans.  
They think I should be helping run the estates and working with the guards on security.  
I think I've only just reached adulthood and have no intentions of settling down just yet, thank you very much.  
They think that nice heir to the neighbours estate would be a perfect match for me.  
I think he is a self absorbed pretty boy with all the charm of a dessicated slug.  
They think I should show a bit more respect for the only man in the acceptable class bracket to not be put off by my preference for hitting things.  
I think I'm showing the biggest bully and stupidest moron in the entirety of the Altmer race every drop of respect he deserves...  
you get the picture.  
Long story short, now I'm stuck in Skyrim until I can "learn my place and agree to settle down like a properly bred daughter of nobility".  
Yeah.  
Guess I'm stuck here till I die then.  
At least the house is nice. I don't think they bothered to check it before dropping me here though, there's some evil sounding guy in the basement who wants to kill me (I am so not going down there any time soon), and I really doubt they would have wanted me to be left unsupervised in a house with a forge, plenty of materials, and a chest full of really really powerful weapons.  
More fool them, better luck me.  
I make myself some nice iron armour to replace the shit they gave me, grab a very pretty sword of undead killing, and after a brief struggle with inbred class attitudes, grab two really good bows and a ton of ammo for them. Any of the barbaric vermin living in this forsaken edge of the world who think I'm an easy target will find themselves dead and on fire in short order.  
Anyways, I practice in the indoors archery range for a bit, armour up, and go out to explore this wintery wasteland.  
Find a horse by the side of the road, but it seems to be owned by someone and I assume their owner will be back soon enough. Not my problem, and I want to go take a look at that barrow I can see up the mountain.  
I climb on up, and find some lovely views, but want to scout the area before going into the barrow itself. Follow a path around and get attacked by a bandit. Knew they were barbaric up here. One dead bandit. Didn't even need to use any of my lovely magic weapons, just hit her with my axe a bit and she fell right over.  
Pathetic human.  
Find the other end of the barrow - it seems to be called Shriekwind Bastion - and kill a bunch of draugr and skeletons wandering around outside it. Too easy. Still haven't needed my magic weapons yet.  
Turns out those ancient nords really knew how to work iron. Swapped out my iron war axe for an ancient one a draugr was carrying, cos it's better.  
If the undead are outside the barrow though, they probably need dealing with pronto, before they head down to the town I can see below.  
I'm here anyway. Guess I'll go do my bit to make this barbaric land a little more civilised and tidy. It's something to do, at least. And mother would Hate it.  
Even better.


	2. Chapter 2 - Cleaning Nordic Messes

Chapter 2 - Cleaning Nordic Messes  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
Entering the barrow of Shriekwind Bastion, first impressions are of cobwebs everywhere. Combined with a few modern lanterns on the floor, I expect spiders and bandits.  
What I find, are skeletons. I swiftly reach a split in the road and have to choose between the high and low paths. I decide to take the high road, and after shooting some skeletons on a lower level of the large three story drum chamber with my catapult bow - resulting in a comet of fire blasting them to smithereens - I head to the door around the chamber on my level. Reach a corridor with a grate over the far end and a handle on a pedestal at the start. Obvious trap.  
Pull the handle, step back, watch continuous jets of fire fill the corridor, and explain the charred corpses everywhere as the grate lifts.   
Navigate past the fires with only minor burns, and open the door.  
Ah! Shit! Master Vampire!  
Shoot him with catapult bow!   
Chug healing potions and shoot him again!  
Dead vampire.  
Well. I guess I know why the undead were on the outside. His armour is both magic and pretty, so I now have new armour. And a new book on speechcraft, which I'm sure will be helpful.  
Further through into his lair, I am finding a lot of empty coffins and quite a bit of loot. I earned it and am therefore taking it.   
Up a staircase and through a door and then there is a draugr. Beat it up with my war axe and looted its corpse. I have no respect for the dead that try to kill me. No idea what to make of the glowing word wall thing that was behind the sarcophagus, but it didn't kill me and i don't seem to be ill, so I'll just have to leave it and hope all will be fine.  
Right. So what was down that lower path then?  
Turns out: a thrall, more skeletons, loads of loot, several traps, and a fledgling vampire. Then a way out.   
That's pretty much right by the road. Opposite my house.  
Huh. I get the impression they were expecting people to come from this direction... Oh well. Imma go see what that watchtower over there is like.  
Novice necromancer dies! I get more loot. Following the road around takes me to the town I saw earlier from above. It’s called Falkreath, and they must have been having a really bad time with the vampires, as well as really good watchers, because i barely step in before i'm being offered the chance to buy land in town for services rendered, and walking into the Jarls hall (Jarl. how quaint and uncivilised) immediately has a redguard woman come say she's my housecarl.  
Okay then. When I have any desire for a babysitter, I will totally look you up, lady.  
The local Jarl is a self absorbed, narcissistic asshole. Pretty sure he even challenges the idiot back home for title of biggest cretin. Still, at least he's sensible enough to recognise the Empires authority. Which means it'll be much easier for the Dominion when we reach here.   
He is also crooked. Asks me to go kill a bunch of bandits because they stopped paying him to ignore them. I've decided to clean this wasteland up anyway, so I'll let him pay me to do what I was going to do anyway. But first, I'll do a polite man a favour and take his relatives ashes to the priest of Arkay. Who is an Altmer and therefore superior company. And asks me to please find his journal in a cave he was exploring.  
I kill the bandits, loot their lair, use their forge and materials to improve my stuff, and head to the cave for that journal. It’s full of spriggans, and has an injured hunter outside who wants help murderising those spriggans because they killed his friends.   
This is in no way a trial, so sure. I shoot a load of spriggans and skin some bears, and the nice hunter gives me his favourite dagger to say thank you. I guess this is how nords make friends? Such strange people.  
Back to town to sell my loot and hand over the journal before i grab some sleep and go back out for some other bandits the steward told me about. She is also an Altmer, and seems to be the true power in this hold, so I approve of her.  
Boy, that blacksmith i talked to earlier wasn't kidding when he said this place was mostly wilderness and trouble. So many bandits and I got attacked by various mages and wolves just for walking on the road. There's also a little girl who got murdered by some drifter type and no one knows why.  
I'll clean out these bandits for the steward, then go have words with the scum.


	3. Chapter Three - Daedra, Daedra everywhere, and never trust a dog.

Chapter Three - Daedra, Daedra everywhere, and never trust a dog.  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
So by the time i got back to Falkreath and finished up the loose ends from bandit killing and journal hunting, it was night. I figure, now is as good a time as any to go have words with the child killing scumbag and wander up to the jail. I find him in a dank watery hole and am glad. Then he actually talks to me and says its because of his being a werewolf and having a cursed ring.  
I don't really believe him at first, but want to prove he's a nutcase just in case someone more gullible bothers to ask him. So I offer to take this so called "cursed" ring and shoot a Beast in the woods to get a Daedric lord to uncurse it for him. Waste of bloody time, but I figure at the very least there might be some bear wandering too close to the road that he's calling the Beast.  
Things go a bit wonky when he hands over the ring and suddenly I can't take the bloody thing off.   
Then HE goes and turns into an actual, factual werewolf under the light of the moon, climbs out of the pit, and escapes.  
Bugger.  
Now I have to go hunt a Beast to save /myself/ from the bloody curse.  
Turns out, said Beast is a giant white stag that was pretty damn easy to sneak up on and shoot. Not impressed.  
And then there's a bloody ghost stag claiming to be the spirit of the Daedric Lord of the Hunt.  
Oookaaayyyyy then. Can you uncurse this here ring please, mr hunt spirit guy?   
Yes, but I have to go jump through some hoops for his amusement. Bloody Daedra.  
So off I go to join a bunch of hunters in a quest to kill the child killer i got the ring from in the first place. Given he's the reason i'm stuck with a cursed wolf-out ring, I am surprisingly okay with this.   
Until I reach the hunting grounds to find all the other hunters are dead, because this is apparently amateur hour and they all thought it was a great idea to hunt a werewolf in light armour - or no armour in some cases. Joy.   
Find the werewolf. Shoot him full of arrows with my best bow, while wearing full heavy armour because I am /not/ a fucking amateur and just want to end this so i can ditch the ring. Hircine the Deadric hunt guy shows back up and takes the ring, while giving me some admittedly pretty nice armour (magically speaking) made of the werewolfs skin.   
Yick.  
Imma go wipe out a load more bandits to cleanse my spirit of this disturbing weirdness.   
Along the way, I find some guys with a serous furs and antlers fetish who like to try and kill me, so i kill as many of them as I can find. Apparently they're called the Forsworn, and tend to bother people in the Reach. Okay then.  
I also find a barrow that has a ghost in it who tells me he's fading and a great ancient evil will rise when he does, so can I please go get some magic rocks from the tombs below to help? I take one look at the seriously creepy altar/tomb of the rising evil guy, and decide I should probably get some more experience at hitting people effectively before I get embroiled in this mess.   
Find a bandit camp with a really extensively trapped vault. Kill all the bandits and work my way past the traps, because whatever they have here has got to be something that shouldn't be left unattended in a broken tower.  
Its shards of a dagger that belonged to a Daedric lord.   
Of. Bloody. Course.   
Well I'm not leaving /that/ lying around, so I guess they're going in my bag until I can figure out what to do with them.  
Get back to town, ask for some more jobs from the steward and the jarl.   
Jarl tries to send me to some place called Riften just to buy him some booze. Not a chance dickwad.  
Sensible (coincidentally Altmeri) steward sends me after some more bandits. I like her.  
Kill more bandits, loot their stuff, find a lovely dwarven shield of fire resistance, and use their forge and tools to make my armour better. I've been studying up, so now I'm head to toe in superior quality steel, and once I can find the right materials, I'll be able to make and improve elven and dwarven armours too.  
Back in town once more, I go to sell my latest haul to the blacksmith, and he says theres a dog wandering around outside and can I go lure it in please? He'd love a dog to keep him company.  
Sure, says I. Not a problem, I think. What could possibly go wrong with just catching a stray dog for the nice man who lets me use his forge?  
Well apparently the gods are laughing at me, because the dog turns out to be literally talkative and i am so confused that i find myself agreeing to mediate between him and his master that he had a falling out with.  
Too late, I learn that his master is Clavicus feckin Vile.   
/Another/ Daedric lord.  
But, I've already promised, so off we go to find his shrine. Which is filled with vampires.  
Yay.  
Kill my way through the mess of vampires and thralls (and one spider) to reach the shrine itself. At least I found some nice gear along the way.  
Only, Clavicus is a dick and says I have to go get him his axe back if i want him to talk to his bloody dog again. So off I go once more, stopping to raid a big chest by the exit.  
Some jewellery, some nice weapons.  
And a big white orb thingy.  
That apparently belongs to yet /another/ Deadric lord. Or lady in this case.   
So I apparently have to go drop this bloody beacon thingy off at her shrine and she'll make me her "champion of light" or whatever. I'm just assuming I'll keep being annoyed by her booming demands if I don't, so fine. I'll take the damn bauble to the damn shrine.  
After I go fetch this bloody axe from what the map tells me is literally the exact opposite end of the entire bloody country.  
Bloody Daedra.  
And I'm stuck with the dog of annoyance who thinks its a great idea to push me off the edge of a cliff because i stopped moving for a moment.   
I am becoming less and less thrilled with this entire thing.  
At least it looks like the shrine is in the same general area as the axe. I'll only have to travel the entire length of Skyrim twice instead of four times.  
At this rate, I might start to wish I'd just gone and tried to help that ghost guardian with the rising evil dragon priest guy instead.  
Still, one point of light in the absurd farce that is my new life: Mother would probably have a heart attack if she knew what I was getting up to out here.  
Maybe I'll send her a letter about it if I join those vampire hunter Dawnguard guys, or the Imperial Legion.  
But for now, I'm on a cart to Solitude so I can start hunting down this stupid axe.

Addendum:

The dog decided that a fantastic way to reach the shrine was via Helgen.  
A town that was rumoured to have been attacked by a dragon, and which I intended to visit precisely never. 

Bloody great flying lizard apparently does exist and is not a Nord fairytale. 

Yay.

I'm sure the people living in the direction it flew off to will notice it. I am designating local giant flying death lizards as not my problem.   
Maybe the stormcloaks will actually do something useful for once and engage it in mutual destruction.


	4. Chapter Four - Daedric Baubles

Chapter Four - Daedric Baubles  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
So the first step of getting to the exact opposite end of Skyrim in order to keep my promises to annoying daedric princes involved getting a art to Solitude.  
Unfortunately, the barbarous wilderness of Falkreath Hold does not support the concept of such civilised ideas as hired transport, so I have to make my way by foot to the nearest cart option.   
This turns out to involve trecking out to Whiterun, via a stop at the forge in Riverwood to improve my armour some more.  
Unfortunately, it also involved going near some brawny nordic types taking on a giant. I say unfortunate, because I attempted to help and one of them ran in to my arrow and then neither of them was intelligent enough to recognise the immediate backing away and putting down of the bow as maybe a sign that it was an accident.  
Luckily, I still had the annoying dog with me, and he distracted them long enough for me to make it to the cart and jump on.   
Horrendously undignified, but I've never been anything but realistic about my relative survival rates vs people who can take down a giant and apparently just keep getting back up when they should have died already.  
Arrive at Solitude, and begin heading towards the cave I've been told I'll find the axe in. En route, I pas some Vigilants of Stendarr who spout off about how good they are at driving the daedric forces out into the light and killing them.  
While a deadric dog is literally sitting right in front of them.   
And they don't notice anything.  
Idiots.  
A little further on they go running past chasing a vampire, so I just leave them to it.  
Oh look, shouty voice lady is back. Turns out I've wandered right past her shrine and she really wants her bauble back in its place. Sure lady. Fine. But it'll wait until the return trip from the axe cave, thanks. You just said something about making me do some more hoop jumping once I put that rock on its stand, and at this point I'm just having to demand that Daedric rulers who want to annoy me take a bloody number and stand in line.  
Head off to try and navigate these snow covered rocks to find the damn cave, and end up being attacked by a spriggan and some ice wraiths along the way. Dog dealt with them and I decided they didn't deserve me treating them with the respect of close combat, so took out the obscenely overpowered bow I got from the house to shoot them with.  
Much simpler.  
Cave turned out to be a bit disappointing - and not just because it was awkward to find and I ended up circling the damn mountain to find it. There was like, a single flame woman, and a mage. Killed them, took the axe, and grabbed anything shiny I could see on my way out. If I'm putting up with this shit, I'm at least going to be well paid for it, and the axe is a two hander so I have zero interest in trying to keep it.  
Head on back to Solitude, and stop off at shouty ladys shrine to pop the rock on its stand.   
Yep.  
She wants me to do more hoop jumping. At least its something I agree with her about - I don't like necromancers, and defiling copses for an even more corrupted end result than standard necromancy is just disgusting.  
Cue wandering through shouty lady's temple, releasing the twisted shades to their final rest. Find the necromancer at the far end, try to set up an ambush to just kill him with my bow, and get pushed down the bloody steps by the stupid dog, ruining my element of surprise. At least he makes up for it a little bit by bottlenecking them in the doorway.  
Long story short, temple is cleansed and shouty lady gives me her sword saying I should wield it in her name to raise her profile for worship. I tell her I'll use it but her name will not be coming up anytime soon, because she is a daedra and not a god.  
She says it'll happen anyway, and I can keep the sword regardless, since she doesn't actually care what I do or say.  
Fair enough. I get a shiny sword, she gets to "spread her light" or whatever. Onwards back to Solitude for a cart to Falkreath and on up to the stupid shrine to finally be rid of the stupid dog.  
Turns out the Daedric Prince of Deception is a dick. I am shocked. Shocked I tells you. See my shocked face.   
Anyways, he doesn't like his dog any more than I do - a lot less in fact - and tries to persuade me to kill said dog with his axe and he'll let me keep it. As previously mentioned, I do not care about two handed shit, and additionally am not eager to own something called the Rueful Axe, so I tell him to just take his dog and axe back already.  
He pouts ineffectually, and eventually huffily give me his Masque instead. It is heavy armour, and really shiny on the magic scale, so I consider this an excellent result. Now I can leave and never care about either of them ever again.  
Head straight to the pub to get some sleep and a drink, but decide not to get into a drinking contest with some new guy called Sam just yet.  
Maybe after I've had a rest and sorted out my loot. I could do with some mindless fun.


	5. Chapter Five - Project Asshole Part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: Contains many spoilers for a newish (this year) mod called Project AHO, which is effectively a mid-sized DLC with a whole new area, characters, and plot

Chapter Five - Project Asshole Part 1  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
So I wake feeling pretty good about life. I've gotten rid of the various Daedric annoyances and come out the other end with some pretty nice things, I've wiped out a load of bandits in the last few days, I'm no longer burdened with that bloody dog, and there’s a drinking contest to look forward to.  
First, though, I decide to pop over to the forge and make some armour to sell, and more importantly use up a bunch of the heavy metals and leather I have in my bag.  
I barely get onto the road before some orc in a white monks robe comes running up spouting off about a prophecy and claiming I'm the one prophesied to save his race or something. He is obviously mistaken, since there is no way an Altmer would ever stoop so low as to be the saviour of as brutish a race as that. I humour him, though. Maybe I can get some proper respect for my position if they recognise my obvious superiority.  
And then his mates sneak up behind me and knock me out.   
In the middle of the street, in broad daylight, in front of multiple witnesses.  
And yet somehow they get away scott free, and I wake up in chains in a cage with a bunch of others. Turns out we've all been kidnapped and forced into slavery with magical amulets that repress free will.   
Up on the auction block, I see we're in a strangely organic building that I vaguely recognise as Dunmer work. this supposition is helped by the fact that the crowd of buyers is almost entirely Dunmer as well.  
A Vampire gets sold for 600, an Argonian starts at six and goes for eight. Another Argonian doesn't get any bids and is 'removed'.  
Then it’s my turn.  
Bidding starts at 300?! I beg your damned pardon?! I am worth so much more than a paltry 300!!   
Oh good, bidding is going well and they apparently recognise my quality, since I go for 2000. Not as much as they should be paying, but at least not a complete insult.  
Although the whole slavery thing at all means I basically need to kill most or all of them just on principle, now.  
Just as soon as I get this bloody amulet off and my stuff back.  
Turns out, the man who calls himself my master is a self absorbed, puffed up jackass. Figures.  
Still, at least he is perceptive enough to have /some/ sense and deliberately chose not to have my tongue cut off as is the usual custom. I don't think he really knows what he is doing though. He basically just tells me not to talk about my past, and to go out and talk to the residents of the city.  
Okay then. Operation make everybody like me to manipulate my way to freedom is a go.   
Must remember to send a letter home to father to rain down economic repercussions on House Telvanni for this insult once I'm out.  
I run around learning the lay of the land and asking people about the place. Turns out they're a colony who set up shop on top of the ruins of a Dwemer mine, and that they tend to live longer in here than out on the surface.   
Some of the residents are nice enough, but the majority are twats. The blacksmith is a rude and abrasive dickhead, and doesn't recognise my quality. He was one of the ones who bid on me, but clearly didn't deserve the superior smithing skills I could have brought to his forge.  
I carry some messages around, and go back to my "master", who sends me to pick up his magic stick from the smith. Then sends me out for acid to dissolve the body of the vampire he bought and almost immediately broke in his 'experiments'. Not sure why he couldn't just have a guard chuck it out into the sun, really.   
Moron.  
The next morning, he demands I make his tea, but gets rude and shouty about my not knowing the recipe as if he hadn't just bought me the day before. So I go off to the alchemist, who informs me that what he calls enlightenment tea, she calls pure intoxication. I like her. She is polite and snarky and its wonderful.   
Off to the farms to pick a bunch of clearly poisonous ingredients to brew into a tea.   
At least the lighting down here is mostly in greens and yellows. It highlights my natural complexion and beauty wonderfully.  
Jackass does not like my first try at the tea. Makes me brew another batch. Still doesn't like it.  
It has poisonous mushrooms, thistles, and literal bees in it. Of bloody course it’s disgusting, asshole.  
Apparently we're now going off to a library deep in the ruins and I have to keep him alive.  
I get armour and weapons again! I can hit stuff! This is just what I need.  
I tool up, meet up with jackass asshole... I mean, my "master". and follow him down into the ruins of Bkhalzarf as he lectures me on it's history.


End file.
